Every property purchased by major Christian churches in NSW, Queensland

Towering skyscrapers, hundreds of homes, thousands of commercial buildings and expansive farmland – the holy grail of property portfolios of major churches can be revealed. See the list of property sales in your suburb.

Towering skyscrapers, hundreds of homes, thousands of commercial buildings and even expansive farmland estates – the holy grail of property portfolios of major Australian churches can be revealed.

An investigation by The Saturday Telegraphinto property holdings of the religious empires that make up the Christian church landscape of Australia has uncovered the multibillion-dollar list of thousands of landholdings.

From the heart of Sydney’s CBD to rural acreages in the state’s west, an extensive list of the registered property portfolios of the Catholic, Anglican, Baptist and Presbyterian churches can be revealed for the first time.

The tangled web of combined dioceses of the Trustees of the Catholic Church – spanning from Sydney to Lismore, Wagga to Wilcannia – reveals the ownership a 1800 properties in hundreds of communities across NSW.

The landholdings, detailed in thousands of CoreLogic property listings, include $1.2 billion worth of real estate purchase data for just 800 of the 1806 properties registered to diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.

52-58 William St, Woolloomooloo is the proposed site for a $19m extension of St Mary's Cathedral College in Sydney. Picture: Woods Bagot.

A high-stake purchases made by the Catholic Church includes a $102 million landholding – owned by the archdiocese of Sydney – at 52-58 William St, Woolloomooloo.

In March, the Catholic Church purchased the multi-storey commercial building in the city before submitting a multimillion-dollar development application to redevelop the site into a second campus of the historic St Mary’s Cathedral College.

Sales data confirms the $100 million purchase is the most expensive listing snapped up by the Catholic Church across any registered property in the country.

Meanwhile the Sydney Archdiocese bought 133-141 Liverpool St in the Sydney CBD for a $33 million price tag, before earmarking plans for a 60-storey residential and commercial skyscraper.

Property developer Deicorp reportedly acquired the site from the Catholic Archdiocese for an undisclosed sum, with plans for the towering residential development green lit in September last year.

The Saturday Telegraph can also reveal commercial properties in Milperra were purchased by the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Sydney for $36 million, while farmland at 570 Picton Rd, Wilton was secured by the Wollongong diocese for more than $13 million.

570 Picton Rd, Wilton.

One thousand properties across NSW had no value or transaction information, however were registered as being purchased or currently owned by one of the trusts used to manage property portfolios for the Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, in the sunshine state, a total of $521 million in recorded property purchases were identified for 532 of the 1294 landholdings registered to ownership data of the trustees of the five Roman Catholic diocese across Queensland.

The corporation of the trustees of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane purchased a towering skyscraper at the heart of the Brisbane CBD for a massive $51 million.

While the nearby 131 Edward St was picked up for more than $29 million.

The commercial property has been linked to development firm Dexus, amid ongoing reports of plans for a development partnership, which could see a major redevelopment of the surrounding precinct.

A multitude of organisations, trusts and corporations associated with the Anglican Church have a property portfolio of 660 landholdings strong in NSW alone, with sales data totalling more than $400 million.

CoreLogic ownership data reports 330 houses and 90 apartments owned by groups tied to the Anglican Church.

These figures exclusive the commercial precincts owned by the aged care and health services arms of the church including Anglican Community Services and Anglicare.

Meanwhile, the property ownership reports for organisations that make up the Baptist churches of NSW have a combined portfolio of more than 500 landholdings in NSW, including sales data for 280 properties bought for close to $200 million.

The Baptist Church has purchased homes across Sydney – with single buys reported to the tune of $4.4 million – as well as a swath of apartments, commercial precincts and farmland.

In Queensland, 289 properties are reported to be owned by various organisations associated to trusts or directly to Baptist church groups.

The Baptist Union of Queensland purchased three commercial precincts in Woolloongabba for more than $10 million in 2012, as well as a residential development in Kepnock, Queensland for $7.3 million.

When it comes to property portfolios of the Presbyterian Church, a total of 388 properties were reported under the ownership of property trusts and church organisations in NSW.

Real estate sales data confirmed the Sydney Sae Soon Presbyterian Church purchased the land for the Sae Soon Korean School at 219A North Rocks Rd, North Rocks for more than $10 million.

Associate Professor Dale Boccabella said tax exemptions for churches should not be used for commercial gain.

Taxation Law expert at the University of New South Wales, Associate Professor, Dale Boccabella, said churches should be forced to “prove they are using the funds to deliver public charitable benefit on a case-by-case basis” when it comes to tax exemptions for the purchase and sale property.

“Churches are operating in the grey when it comes to tax exemptions on property purchases and sales,” he said. “The major churches are afforded income and capital gains tax exemptions as a result of their social and charitable aid.

“But they are supposed to use their money to deliver on their stated charitable purchase, such as promote religion or benefit the community through social support.

“However, these figures show that several churches are developing commercial operations and purchasing property for commercial gain.”

Meanwhile a spokesman for the Australian Charities and Not for Profit Commission said it was common for charities to make investments.

“When a charity is planning to invest, it needs to think about how the funds will ultimately further its charitable purposes,” he said.

A spokesman for the Anglican Diocese of Sydney said it was “not in the business of property development for profit”.

“We buy and develop land for church use,” the spokesman said. “At the moment, our property acquisitions, through fundraising, are concentrating on buying land and building churches in the developing areas of Sydney where there currently are no churches.

“We want to grow churches in new suburbs where we have seen great interest and growth of congregations. Areas such as Oran Park and Leppington in the southwest and Stanhope Gardens in the Northwest.”

The diocese spokesman said some land purchases and development included “elements of specialist or social and affordable housing”.

“One of our churches on the Northern Beaches recently built specialist disability accommodation because there was a shortage in that area.

“There may be other development plans which include some retail or residential, but this is unusual.”

It is understood each dioceses and archdioceses of the Catholic Church across the country manage its own property portfolio under the authority of a bishop or archbishop.

Land purchases are decided on by the diocese own property policy, investment policy and entities and personnel who deal with property and investment issues.

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Originally published as Every property purchased by major Christian churches in NSW, Queensland